"Getting performance is the easy part," said Huang. "The challenging part is delivering that performance with low power, and better and better efficiency. The low-power core with Kal-El is 20 times "less hungry" for energy."

Cheats!

Part of this energy-saving comes from an image processing technique that "cheats" on similar colours and lighting.

"The human eye can't tell," said Huang.

Huang commented on Apple's decision to design its own chips, saying that its a costly but beneficial form of development.

In response to a question on tablets, Huang also said that Windows 8's ARM compatibility could push technology to new levels.

"Now we're clear that ARM is going to be a large ecosystem," Huang said. "It's possible for us to extend that beyond phones to tablets and clamshells. Most likely Windows on ARM."